Terrance Williams departs choir rehearsal as evening falls on Mt. Calvary Missionary Baptist Church on Saturday, Feb. 9, 2013, in Houston. The church has been a fixture on Herkimer Street in Houston's Heights for nearly a century. In the last few years, the aging neighborhood of legacy homes have been sold and razed to make way for multistory new homes and their residents. Nowadays, the singing, preaching and shouting at Mt. Calvary has prompted police calls for noise complaints as friction between neighbors, old and new, creeps into the dynamic of a transforming neighborhood.

Signs advise worshippers to turn off their cell phones on the door into the sanctuary at Mt. Calvary Missionary Baptist Church on Saturday, Feb. 9, 2013, in Houston.

Photo: Smiley N. Pool, Houston Chronicle

Signs advise worshippers to turn off their cell phones on the door...

Image 5 of 9

A child plays in the pews during choir rehearsal at Mt. Calvary Missionary Baptist Church on Saturday, Feb. 9, 2013, in Houston.

Photo: Smiley N. Pool, Houston Chronicle

A child plays in the pews during choir rehearsal at Mt. Calvary...

Image 6 of 9

Pastor Maurice A. Johnson stands next to a marker detailing the history of Mt. Calvary Missionary Baptist Church on Saturday, Feb. 9, 2013, in Houston.

Photo: Smiley N. Pool, Houston Chronicle

Pastor Maurice A. Johnson stands next to a marker detailing the...

Image 7 of 9

The pealing paint on the sides of Mt. Calvary Missionary Baptist Church contrasts with neighboring houses on Saturday, Feb. 9, 2013, in Houston.

Photo: Smiley N. Pool, Houston Chronicle

The pealing paint on the sides of Mt. Calvary Missionary Baptist...

Image 8 of 9

Houses next door are seen in the background as Pastor Maurice A. Johnson points out features of the new church building under construction at Mt. Calvary Missionary Baptist Church on Saturday, Feb. 9, 2013, in Houston.

Mount Calvary Missionary Baptist Church has been a fixture on Herkimer Street in Houston's Heights for nearly a century. In the last few years, the aging neighborhood of legacy homes - worth far less than the Inside-the-Loop, near-downtown land where they sat - have been sold and replaced by new residences.

The music at Mount Calvary suddenly prompted noise complaints to church leaders and police. Newcomers also don't like the sounds from construction workers building a new sanctuary next to the church or the parking issues on Sunday mornings.

"I really don't under­stand this because every one of these houses used our parking lot as a staging area to get their lumber. They disturbed us early in the morning and late at night when they were working and we had something going on at the church, but we never complained about it," said Maurice A. Johnson, the congregation's pastor for two decades.

Growing pains

Houston-area neighborhoods in transition have experienced growing pains as newcomers co-exist with longtime residents. A recent building boom has transformed a cramped nook between 10th Street, 11th Street, Herkimer and Nicholson, which runs along a bike trail. New two-story homes are built within a few feet of each other. In the midst remains the squat, clapboard church of about 130 members.

Johnson admits the current building - more than 60 years old - has walls that offer a useless buffer to the sounds of services and choir rehearsal.

"Paper thin," the pastor said. "But I will not apologize for us worshipping God and I will not apologize that we are in an old building and our noise seeps through."

Johnson has received anonymous calls from people who identified themselves as neighbors. Developers have made overtures to buy the church out, including an offer last month. The city sent a copy of Houston's noise ordinance.

Kara Salton and her husband drove through the neighborhood before buying their home four years ago, but never dreamed the church would bother them.

"They're nice enough to let us use their parking lot when we have get-togethers," the 34-year-old said, adding that the late-night music has been troublesome. "The only problem I have is when it's 11 p.m. I have a 20-month-old who's going to be up at 5 or 6."

The most dramatic clash came on a Saturday morning last November. Concrete trucks with rumbling engines and churning tanks lined up before dawn on Herkimer to pour the foundation for the new church. Tension exploded. Officers showed up that day, too.

"That was infuriating," Salton said. "My parents were here and they were going to let us sleep in that morning. That was it and it was one day. We got over it and we really haven't had an issue since."

More soundproofing

The latest noise complaints resulted in police showing up during the New Year's Eve service to tell the congregants to "quiet down," Johnson said. That's why the church hired uniformed officers during a recent youth concert to handle security and field complaints.

Hope for a resolution comes from those concrete trucks and the clanging sounds of construction on the new two-story church, which will include a sanctuary, balcony, classrooms and a kitchen. Exterior walls will contain 5 7⁄8 inches of low-density foam. Interior walls will provide extra insulation, which means that most of the sound will escape through windows or an open door, said Johnson, who owns a construction business.

Mount Calvary plans to build and sell a home on property across the street and use the proceeds to help pay for the new sanctuary. The old building will be torn down and that land used for parking.

Joyce Ballenger, who moved into a new house three doors down from the old church in 2010, said she was surprised by the volume of Sunday services.

"I really didn't know it was that loud. I can understand the complaints because I'm one of them," she said, adding that the noise blasts through her bedroom.

Neither Ballenger nor her 82-year-old mother, Lois White, think the church should leave the community. They live on the lot where White's late aunt, who attended Mount Calvary, had a home.

"To get rid of that church would be a disservice to this community and to Houston," said Ballenger, 59, who will have just one home between her house and the new Mount Calvary. "I'm just praying that when they finish this church it's soundproof."